Columns - Topics from February, 2012

On Sunday morning, February 19, 2012, James Dixon III, was shot down in his own front yard by a Georgia State Patrol SWAT team called in to assist our sheriff’s department. He died here at home at the hands of his own countrymen. He should have been safe here as he worked with the VA doctors to overcome the terrors of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. But something went intolerably wrong on that black Sunday.
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Early Valentine Day morning, B. J. awakened me from a deep sleep. Before I could get the cobwebs out of my eyes and brain, she hit me with a proposal: “Happy Valentine’s Day. Let’s eat breakfast at the King and Prince this morning.”
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The dry weather has made the otter population gather in the few places where there is still water and fish to be found and the lake behind my home is swarming with them. The shad, roaches as we call them, are bedding in the big lake and the otters are having a field day. I can get right up close to them. They have gotten to where they pay me little attention and it does my heart good to see them. They are the most playful creatures in nature and I would like to tame one. If I could find a den with little ones, I bet I could.
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More than two inches of rain fell on the dry, thirsty soil of Pine Grove Saturday night. I lay in my bed under a cozy red blanket and relished the sound of rain on the roof. I’m convinced that is one of the most pleasant sounds known to man. Intent on listening to the musical pelting, I’d forget to read my book for several minutes at a time, and not much makes me forget to read. Even as Larry and I rushed around to unplug the computers when the lightening worsened, we kept grinning like kids on Christmas morning.
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We finally got all our gear together and made it to the river by mid-afternoon. Getting the boat launched at the Flat Tub landing was a chore but a liberal application of internal bug repellant took care of the worry and aggravation. Finally, we were underway downriver to a deep hole where we knew there had to be a barrel of catfish waiting. We baited our poles and started the waiting game. Doctor P.U. Nasty, my partner, decided we needed to move up a little ways and put the brand new trolling motor in the water and touched the pedal. Within seconds a Flathead catfish, an invasive species, that weighed at least twenty pounds floated to the surface right by the boat and just lay there, belly up, waiting to be netted. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Doc wasted no time in netting the huge catfish and had no sooner netted the one when another floated up.
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After child custody and support, division of marital property is of utmost concern to my clients who are going through a divorce. In Georgia, this process is called equitable division of property with equitable meaning that which is fair, not necessarily that which is equal. To be sure, not all property is subject to division and the most important consideration is whether the particular property is characterized as separate or marital. Separate property is not subject to division by the Court. The best examples of separate property are those items that were inherited by one party or received as a gift or those items that were owned prior to the marriage. However, to the extent that separate property appreciates in value during the marriage, that increase may be divided by the Court.
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With the 2012 legislative session well under way, I want to update everyone about what’s going on at the Capitol.

In an effort to improve our state’s education system, I introduced Senate Bill 410. If implemented, this bill will move our schools away from the current AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) system to a system that provides a much more accurate measure of a school’s performance. The current AYP system provides only a “pass” or “fail” grade, meaning it is hard to track progress and incentivize improvements. Many educators and parents also argue that the current system is easily manipulated and difficult to understand. With SB 410, however, I hope to help move to a new, multi-tiered system developed by Georgia School Superintendant John Barge and the Department of Education that will provide true bench marks to track progress and provide accountability. The new criteria will provide a clearer and easier to understand picture of how a school is performing.
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Last week presidential candidate Mitt Romney said to a CNN interviewer, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.” As soon as the words fell from Romney’s mouth, great flocks of vultures rose to attack him.
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It was back to the catfish pond for Fox and me. We were having a battle trying to keep the ducks from eating the peanut flavored fish food but the two of us were not going to give up. I assured my neighbor I would kill as many ducks as necessary to ensure his catfish make it through this drought we are in.
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Traveling is a happy hobby with B. J. and me; it just happens. We started traveling on our honeymoon to St. Simons Island and it has been going on ever since.

During those early traveling years, we rarely made serious plans for a trip nor did we make reservations in a motel. We just winged it. Don’t laugh. Some of the most fun trips we ever had were the impromptu kind.

On our recent trip to Jacksonville, we made no reservations anywhere for anything whatsoever. We recalled the old days and just winged it.
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On those rare occasions when the pump malfunctions and we have no water, my subconscious panics, and I experience an immediate intense thirst. It matters not one whit that I have bottled water in the refrigerator and jugs of water stored for emergencies. My subconscious doesn’t have to be logical. It wants the pump working post haste.
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The copperhead bream, the ones with the streak across their nose, are gathering off the edge of the big flat on the east side of the lake behind my home. My Daddy and I built this lake in 1976 and every time I look at it I remember him and the good times we had as he would hook another of those ‘titty bream’ , as he called them, because they were so big he had to hold them against his breast to get the hook out.
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Jacksonville Florida is approximately an hour from our house. St. Augustine is another thirty to forty-five minutes and Daytona Beach around three hours. The driving time to these locations is dependent on traffic and Big Red’s or Little Blue’s temperament. B. J. and I frequently skedaddle down to the Sunshine State for an outing.
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When my sons were students at Georgia Southern, they were both involved in music, especially Calvin, who earned a degree in music. Josh’s degree is in English, but he played on the indoor drum line and still plays several instruments for fun. Often the boys would call me and tell me to put a particular date on the calendar and come to Statesboro for a night of classical music. We heard music teachers and students in concert, as well as traveling groups. Once we had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a Russian group perform. How we enjoyed these outings. It never bothered me that I got back home late and had to rise early the next morning.
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I am an avid bird hunter and have been all my life. When I was young it was nothing to walk out the back door with my Daddy’s 20 gauge Browning auto and Red, the red speckled setter, and by noon have twenty wild Bob White quail in my coat. Man, those were the days. I loved quail hunting and miss it sorely, but now that the wiregrass and old timber is gone and the habitat has completely changed, hunting wild Bobwhite is nearly impossible for us ordinary folk. Most quail hunting now is done on plantations where the birds are pen raised and released just ahead of the hunt. This is fun to some people but to those of us that were here when it was real; shooting a pen raised quail is like kissing your sister.
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